Swimming at the 1976 Montréal Summer Games:

This was the final swimming event for women in Montréal. Of the previous 12 events at the 1976 Olympics, the German Democratic Republic (GDR – East Germany) had won 11, with one won by the Soviet Union (200 metre breaststroke). The GDR were overwhelming favorites and they put out their best swimmer, Kornelia Ender, on the opening leg to finish the race early. Ender opened a 1.16 second lead over American Kim Peyton and it seemed over. But Wendy Boglioli, swimming the second leg for the US, pulled back time as did third swimmer Jill Sterkel. As Claudia Hempel (GDR) and Shirley Babashoff started their anchor legs, the GDR led by only .40 seconds. Babashoff had been frustrated at Montréal by her inability to defeat Ender, whom she openly accused of using drugs, accusations that would prove to be true, but not fully known until after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the release of East German sporting documents. But on the anchor Babashoff achieved a measure of redemption when she out-swam Hempel to give the United States its only women’s swimming gold medal in Montréal.